This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Note: archive at right.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—Onexim Sports and Entertainment Holding USA, Inc., Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) and Nets Sports and Entertainment (NSE) announced today that they have closed on the agreement for the purchase of an 80% stake in the capital of the Nets basketball club and a 45% share in the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn.

Mikhail Prokhorov, principal owner of Onexim Sports and Entertainment Holding USA, Inc., said, “This much-anticipated day has finally come and now the real fun begins of building a championship team with a state-of-the-art home in the Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards. It’s a wonderful opportunity to combine great sports and good business, and I look forward to working with Bruce Ratner and Forest City and with the Nets organization as we move ahead. To the fans, whether in New Jersey, Brooklyn, or Moscow, I will do everything I can to give you a winning team. See you at the Draft Lottery.”

Bruce Ratner, Chairman and CEO of FCRC, said, “This is a partnership that will allow us to bring Brooklyn and the Nets to a world-wide audience. I’m thrilled to have Mikhail on board and look forward to working with him as we embark on this journey to Brooklyn.”

Mr. Ratner explained as well that while construction on the site and arena has been ongoing, today also marks a significant milestone in the history of the project because all paper work related to the arena lease has been completed and bond funds have been released from escrow. “We are thankful to our partners, especially the Mayor and the Governor,” Mr. Ratner said. “Today, the promise of Atlantic Yards, including the Barclays Center, the jobs and the housing, becomes a reality.”

In accordance with the agreement, subsidiaries of Onexim Sports and Entertainment Holding USA, Inc., have invested $200 million and have made certain contingent funding commitments to acquire 45% of the arena project and 80% of the NBA team, and the right to purchase up to 20% of the Atlantic Yards Development Company, which will develop the non-arena real estate.

The transaction was approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors on May 11th. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as legal counsel to FCRC and NSE. Hogan Lovells advised Onexim Sports and Entertainment Holding USA, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

CLEVELAND, May 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: FCEA and FCEB) today announced that its New York-based subsidiary, Forest City Ratner Companies, closed an agreement with Nets Sports and Entertainment and Mikhail Prokhorov, under which entities controlled by Prokhorov will acquire an 80 percent stake in the Nets basketball team and a 45 percent share in the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn. The transaction was approved by the National Basketball Association's Board of Governors on May 11.

"This is a major step forward for Brooklyn, the Nets and Atlantic Yards," said Charles A. Ratner, Forest City Enterprises president and chief executive officer. "We are pleased to partner with Mikhail Prokhorov and we share his vision of bringing professional basketball to Brooklyn and to a worldwide audience from the Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards. I also want to acknowledge the hard work and creativity of Forest City's entire New York team, led by Bruce Ratner and Joanne Minieri, in making this day possible."

In accordance with the agreement, subsidiaries of Onexim Sports and Entertainment Holding USA, Inc., have invested $200 million and made certain contingent funding commitments to acquire the above-referenced shares of the arena and team, as well as the right to purchase up to 20 percent of the Atlantic Yards Development Company, which will develop the non-arena real estate.

While that's part of the lawsuit, more prominent are claims of racial discrimination and retaliation, with black employees claiming repeated abuse by white supervisors, preferential treatment toward Hispanic colleagues, and retaliation in response to complaints.

Two individual supervisors, for example, are charged with referring to black employees as “black motherfucker,” “dumb black bitch,” “black monkey,” “piece of shit” and “nigger.”

Two have referred to an employee blind in one eye as “cyclops,” and “the one-eyed guy,” and an employee with a nose disorder as “the nose guy.”

There's been no official response yet though arena spokesman Barry Baum told the Daily News they, but take “allegations of this kind very seriously” and have "a zero tolerance policy for…

To supporters of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, it's a long-awaited plan for long-overlooked land. "The Atlantic Yards area has been available for any developer in America for over 100 years,” declared Borough President Marty Markowitz at a 5/26/05 City Council hearing.

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, mused on 11/15/05 to WNYC's Brian Lehrer, “Isn’t it interesting that these railyards have sat for decades and decades and decades, and no one has done a thing about them.” Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco, in a 12/19/04 New York Times article ("In a War of Words, One Has the Power to Wound") described the railyards as "an empty scar dividing the community."

But why exactly has the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Vanderbilt Yard never been developed? Do public officials have some responsibility?

At right is a photo of a poster spotted in Hasidic Williamsburg right. Clearly there's an event scheduled at the Barclays Center aimed at the Haredi Jewish community (strict Orthodox Jews who reject secular culture), but the lack of English text makes it cryptic.

The website Matzav.com explains, Protest Against Israeli Draft of Bnei Yeshiva Rescheduled for Barclays Center:
A large asifa to protest the drafting of bnei yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel into the Israeli army that had been set to take place this month will instead be held on Sunday, 17 Sivan/June 11, at the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, NY.
So attendees at a big gathering will protest an apparent change of policy that will make it much more difficult for traditional Orthodox Jewish students--both Hasidic (who follow a rebbe) and non-Hasidic (who don't)--to get deferments from the draft. Comments on the Yeshiva World website explain some of the debate.

First mentioned in April, the Atlantic Yards project in Atlanta is moving ahead--and has the potential to nudge Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn further down in Google searches.

According to a 5/30/17 press release, Hines and Invesco Real Estate Announce T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards:
Hines, the international real estate firm, and Invesco Real Estate, a global real estate investment manager, today announced a joint venture on behalf of one of Invesco Real Estate’s institutional clients to develop two progressive office projects in Atlanta totalling 700,000 square feet. T3 West Midtown will be a 200,000-square-foot heavy timber office development and Atlantic Yards will consist of 500,000 square feet of progressive office space in two buildings. Both projects are located on sites within Atlantic Station in the flourishing Midtown submarket.
Hines will work with Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture (HPA) as the design architect for both T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards. DLR Group will be t…

Pacific Park Brooklyn is seriously delayed, Forest City Realty Trust said yesterday in a news release, which further acknowledged that the project has caused a $300 million impairment, or write-down of the asset, as the expected revenues no longer exceed the carrying cost.

The Cleveland-based developer, parent of Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner, which is a 30% investor in Pacific Park along with 70% partner/overseer Greenland USA, blamed the "significant impairment" on an oversupply of market-rate apartments, the uncertain fate of the 421-a tax break, and a continued increase in construction costs.

While the delay essentially confirms the obvious, given that two major buildings have not launched despite plans to do so, it raises significant questions about the future of the project, including:if market-rate construction is delayed, will the affordable h…

Real Estate Weekly, reporting on trends in Chinese investment in New York City, on 11/18/15 quoted Jim Costello, a senior vice president at research firm Real Capital Analytics:
“They’re typically building high-end condos, build it and sell it. Capital return is in a few years. That’s something that is ingrained in the companies that have been coming here because that’s how they’ve grown in the last 35 years. It’s always been a development game for them. So they’re just repeating their business model here,” he said.
When I read that last November, I didn't think it necessarily applied to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, now 70% owned (outside of the Barclays Center and B2 modular apartment tower), by the Greenland Group, owned significantly by the Shanghai government.
A majority of the buildings will be rentals, some 100% market, some 100% affordable, and several--the last several built--are supposed to be 50% market/50% subsidized. (See tentative timetable below.)Selling development …

Click on graphic to enlarge. This is post-dated to stay at the top of the blog. It will be updated as announced configurations change and buildings launch. The August 2014 tentative configurations proposed by developer Greenland Forest City Partners will change, and the project is already well behind that tentative timetable.